Green initiatives bring Keppel savings

Profits might seem to be the most important target for any company, but at Keppel Corp, they go together with sustainability.

The conglomerate has not put a pause on its green initiatives and investments during the pandemic, especially after it reaped the rewards of such moves last year when they saved it around $60 million.

Chief executive Loh Chin Hua said: "Our vision is to be a trusted global company building a sustainable future. This demands that we create value for our stakeholders holistically, including the social, environmental and economic dimensions.

"To this end, we are making sustainability our business, creating diverse solutions which are good for the planet and for people, and, in the process, creating new profit pools for Keppel."

In April, a Keppel-led consortium secured a $1.5 billion contract from the National Environment Agency to develop a waste-to-energy plant and a materials recovery facility for a new waste management project in Tuas.

Keppel data centres also joined forces with the National University of Singapore's engineering department and Singapore LNG Corp to develop a novel, energy-efficient and cost-effective cooling technology for data centres. Mr Loh said: "The innovation could further pave the way for more sustainable and compact data centres."

Keppel DHCS, a provider of sustainable cooling solutions, is also collaborating with the university to develop a thermal energy storage system for district cooling applications that uses novel heat-transfer materials.

Keppel DHCS is wholly owned by Keppel Infrastructure, which is, in turn, fully owned by Keppel Corp.

District cooling systems distribute cooling capacity in the form of chilled water, for instance, from a central source to multiple buildings through a network of pipes.

Mr Loh said the research, which has received a grant from the Energy Market Authority, could result in an improvement in energy efficiency and space savings.